Just Nat Turns 3

Three years on, and astonishingly, I'm still regularly knocking out this complete drivel highly intellectual, thought-provoking prose, as well as the odd photo or two.

I've racked up 372 posts, had around 10,000 views of my blog and received over 2,000 comments. A huge thank you to my fabulous readers! I hope that you will stick around in 2012, as I have quite a few things in store....

Most excitingly, I plan to travel as much as possible. So far, I am booked to go to Lille (North France) for a weekend break later this month, then there's the biggie of 2012 - the fortnight in Vietnam and Cambodia in April, plus a short break in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in June... to take advantage of the Diamond Jubilee weekend. Yes, she's giving us a holiday... 'cause she can!

God save our gracious Queen! Thanks for our 4-day weeeekend! God save our Queen!


Wonder if that counts as treason? If not and I'm still a free woman in October, there are plans afoot for a trip to New England and Canada to coincide with the autumn (sorry, I mean Fall!) foliage. We shall see...

This year I am determined to shift some weight by making some permanent lifestyle changes.... such a New Year cliche, right? Never fear, faithful readers, I will not be boring you with nonstop, tedious calorie-counting tales, but I may be sharing some new low-fat-but-still-easy-and-delicious recipes. 

Otherwise, expect the usual, completely random nonsense that a year in the life of Nat brings....

Hang in there dear readers.... there's loads more still to come!

Dinner Party Dos And Don’ts

Do find out beforehand what your guests don’t like to eat… I’ve served tomato and celery soup to someone who eats everything under the sun, except celery and tomatoes.

Don’t try out exceedingly complicated, new recipes or techniques.

Do remember to include all the ingredients… especially the ones you sent your (long suffering) husband out to get in the middle of the night, as you forgot to add them to your weekly grocery delivery.

Don’t overdo the garlic… unless you’re trapped in a Twilight Saga, there is definitely such a thing as too much garlic, even in garlic bread!

Do keep your eye on the ball, or rather on the oven…. otherwise that incredibly garlicky garlic bread will be incredibly blackened, incredibly garlicky garlic bread.

Do stock up on the pre-dinner nibbles, just in case the food takes longer to cook than you thought it would…. a few years’ back, I kept an (exceedingly patient) dinner guest waiting till nearly midnight to tuck into a chicken that stubbornly refused to roast– a disastrous combination of not having a proper roasting pan and just a mini table-top oven.

Do create an ambient setting, but do watch out for fire hazards…. paper napkins + candles + animated dinner guests = a good way to test your smoke detectors before winter.

Don’t use paper napkins. Ever again.